DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Sept. 24, 2015) – NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship contender Woody Pitkat will sport a different car number and colors this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but the marks will be plenty familiar to longtime modified fans.

Photo Credit Buzz Chew Motorsports

Piktat’s regular No. 88 black and blue Chevrolet has transformed into a red and white No. 38 as a tribute to NASCAR Hall of Fame-elect Jerry Cook for Saturday’s F.W. Webb 100. The throwback scheme features a red paint with white lettering and numbers outlined in black, and the look comes complete with Cook’s primary sponsors Hollebrand Trucking and B&M Speed Shop. The No. 88 team’s present day sponsor Buzz Chew Chevrolet is also feature on the car with a retro logo.

Although Cook had retired from competition by the time New Hampshire’s “Magic Mile” opened in 1990, the track is the most prominent venue the Whelen Modified Tour visits, providing a fitting place for the tribute to take place.

The selection of the Buzz Chew Motorsports team for this tribute opportunity was also apt. Pitkat is the defending winner of the F.W. Webb 100 and is just one point out of first in the 2015 championship race.

“This is a great honor to have Buzz Chew Racing and Woody Pitkat carry my colors and number at New Hampshire,” Cook said. “Being elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame is as great as it gets. It’s out of this world for sure.”

Cook barnstormed his way up and down the East Coast chasing wins and points. He compiled 342 checkered flags in 1,474 starts and earned six NASCAR modified division national championships from 1971-77. Only six drivers in the history of NASCAR racing at all levels have more series titles than the Rome, New York, native.

Jerry Cook of Rome, NY, with one of the Pinto-bodied cars At Islip Speedway he used on his way to winning the 1971 NASCAR National Modified championship, the first of his six titles. (Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images)

“All of the racing they did, the accomplishments he had and the championships he won, it’s a huge honor for our team to be able to do this,” Pitkat said.

Cook often raced a handful of times a week, and Pitkat – who maintains an aggressive racing schedule himself by today’s standards – feels a bit of a kindship to the man his team is paying tribute to.

“I’m kind of in the same boat because I do a lot of racing myself,” Pitkat said. “I race four different cars – he was probably doing it with just one car back then – but it makes me feel good that I’m kind of doing the same thing he did.”

Cook will join former competitor and rival Evans, also from Rome, New York, as the only competitors from NASCAR’s weekly and regional touring division ranks to receive NASCAR Hall of Fame election.

In a similar effort, Mystic Missile Racing featured an Evans tribute paint scheme at New Hampshire in the September 2011 Whelen Modified Tour event following his posthumous NASCAR Hall of Fame election.

“To me it’s a huge honor,” Pitkat said. “I remember a few years ago when Bobby [Santos] drove the Richie Evans tribute car and that was really cool.”

The NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 22, 2016, and will be broadcast on NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, live from Charlotte, North Carolina. Cook will be inducted alongside Bobby Isaac, Terry Labonte, O. Bruton Smith and Curtis Turner.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Sept. 22, 2015) – There’s no shortage of history when it comes to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Saturday’s F.W. Webb 100 at New Hampshire Motors Speedway will add another marker on the timeline.

The F.W. Webb 100 will mark the 600th race in Whelen Modified Tour history. The tour’s inaugural event was held on March 31, 1985 at Connecticut’s Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park, an event won by NASCAR Hall of Fame member Richie Evans. Thirty years later the competition is as strong as it’s ever been with five different winners in 12 events and a single tally separating first and second in the championship standings.

The Whelen Modified Tour was the third NASCAR series to take to the newly-minted “Magic Mile” in its 1990 opening season. The NASCAR XFINITY Series and NASCAR K&N Pro Series East christened the 1.058-mile facility first on July 15, and the mighty mods made their initial appearance there on Sept. 2, 1990 with Mike McLaughlin reaching Victory Lane. The F.W. Webb 100 will mark the 63rd running of the modifieds in Loudon.

The Whelen Modified Tour’s milestone race will follow another historic event Saturday at New Hampshire as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will contest its 500th all-time event. The 500th modified race took place on Sept. 20, 2008 at Martinsville (Virginia) Speedway.

Fast Facts:
The Race: The F.W. Webb 100 will be the 13th of 15 points races on the 2015 schedule and the second of two visits to New Hampshire Motor Speedway. This will also be the 600th race in NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour history.

The Procedure: The maximum starting field is 38 cars, including provisionals. The first 33 cars will secure starting positions based on two-lap qualifying. The remaining five spots will be awarded through the provisional process. This is an impound race, scheduled for 100 laps (105.8 miles), with an allotment of four change tires. There will be a five-minute midway break at or near the conclusion of Lap 50.

The Track: NHMS, a 1.058-mile slightly-banked asphalt oval, is the largest track on the Whelen Modified Tour schedule. NHMS has played host to the Whelen Modified Tour 62 times previously for points races, the most of any facility outside of Connecticut.

Race Winners: There have been 20 different race winners at NHMS, led by Mike Stefanik with eight victories. Woody Pitkat is the defending winner of the F.W. Webb 100.

Pole Winners: There have been 26 different pole winners at NHMS, led by Jan Leaty’s six. Ted Christopher is the active poles leader with five. Mike Ewanitsko holds the qualifying record at 28.693 seconds (132.743 mph), set in 2001.

F.W. Webb 100 Notes:
Points Battle Moves on to Magic Mile: The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour’s intense championship battle will resume after an idle month with the F.W. Webb 100 where Ryan Preece brings just a one-point lead in the season standings on Woody Pitkat. There has been little give between the two as the season has progressed. Preece has four wins to Pitkat’s one, and those victory bonus points have been crucial since Pitkat has registered 10 top-five finishes to Preece’s six. Defending titlist Doug Coby is also in the mix, 25 points behind Preece.

Preece Set for Sprint Cup Series Debut: Preece will face more than just a test from fellow modified championship contender Pitkat this weekend in Loudon as he will also attempt to make his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut. Preece, from Berlin, Connecticut, will compete in the No. 98 Tommy Baldwin Racing entry for a spot in Sunday’s Sylvania 300, the same organization with which he made his first NASCAR XFINITY Series appearance in 2013 at NHMS. The No. 98 Mohawk Northeast/East West Marine Chevrolet will feature a modified car tribute paint scheme for Preece’s grandfather, Bob Judkins, who was the longtime owner of the No. 2x modified most famously driven by Ed Flemke Sr.

Christopher, Rocco Reunite as Teammates: Our Motorsports will field two entries this week at New Hampshire, the No. 22 for Keith Rocco and the No. 23 for Ted Christopher. It will mark the first time in more than a decade that the two have been teammates instead of rivals. Rocco served as a crew member on Christopher’s NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified team in the early 2000s – highlighted by the 2001 national title – before launching his own racing career, and the two have since battled on a weekly basis at the three Connecticut short tracks as well as the Whelen Modified Tour. Christopher filled in for Rocco in the No. 22 in the team’s last two appearances after Rocco suffered a wrist injury.

Seuss Returns Home the Southern Points Leader: Hampstead, New Hampshire, native Andy Seuss will return to his home state for Saturday’s Whelen Modified Tour event as the new points leader in the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour. Driving the No. 11 Harvey Racing Chevrolet down south, Seuss has posted three wins and seven top 10s in nine events to forge a 10-point lead with two races remaining. He’ll race his family’s No. 70 Chevrolet at NHMS, where he’s recorded four top 10s in 14 career starts.

Big Field: As many as 38 cars are anticipated to enter the F.W. Webb 100. The previous season high for cars to take the green flag, not counting the combination race with the Whelen Southern Modified Tour at Bristol Motor Speedway in August, was 35 for the season opener at Thompson in April. The largest starting grid for a NASCAR regional touring series non-combination race so far in 2015 was 38 for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West at Sonoma (California) Raceway.